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decentrality

270 karma · joined December 6, 2013

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decentrality··on Being “Confidently Wrong” is holding AI back
Agreed with #1 ( came here to say that also )

Pronoun and noun wordplay aside ( 'Their' ... `themselves` ) I also agree that LLMs can correct the path being taken, regenerate better, etc...

But the idea that 'AI' needs to be _stubbornly_ wrong ( more human in the worst way ) is a bad idea. There is a fundamental showing, and it is being missed.

What is the context reality? Where is this prompt/response taking place? Almost guaranteed to be going on in a context which is itself violated or broken; such as with `Open Web UI` in a conservative example: Who even cares if we get the responses right? Now we have 'right' responses in a cul-de-sac universe. This might be worthwhile using `Ollama` in `Zed` for example, but for what purpose? An agentic process that is going to be audited anyway, because we always need to understand the code? And if we are talking about decision-making processes in a corporate system strategy... now we are fully down the rabbit hole. The corporate context itself is coming or going on whether it is right/wrong, good/evil, etc... as the entire point of what is going on there. The entire world is already beating that corporation to death or not, or it is beating the world to death or not... so the 'AI' aspect is more of an accelerant of an underlying dynamic, and if we stand back... what corporation is not already stubbornly wrong, on average?

decentrality··on Zedless: Zed fork focused on privacy and being local-first
This is correct. The fork and the pitchforks are not causally related
decentrality··on Zedless: Zed fork focused on privacy and being local-first
Seems like it might be reacting to or fanned to flame by: https://github.com/zed-industries/zed/discussions/36604
decentrality··on Sequoia backs Zed
Easy fix:

{ "server_url": "", }

I comment out that JSONC line periodically when I feel like cherry-picking updates

decentrality··on Sequoia backs Zed
Not sure what this guess is based on. Would that be a guess for git also, if mentioned by a company versus an individual?

My read was that they are pulling a Linus Torvalds with the Linux->Git move where both are innovations on their own, but work great together ( without dystopian universe instantiation )

CRDTs mentioned: https://zed.dev/blog/crdts

decentrality··on Sequoia backs Zed
This is accurate. I came over from Sublime Text because it had become laggy over >5 running instances, and native LLM integration. Even VS Code doesn't actually have that... where everything is an extension versus seamlessly/perfectly fitting

As mentioned in other comments, it actually outperforms window management in general in many/most cases. Radically flexible and almost never gets in the way

decentrality··on Sequoia backs Zed
I agree. The level of dilution is becoming obvious and a big problem... code is becoming predominantly disposable

Despite the article being salesmanship hype ( at WEF no less ) we are now in the time mentioned, and can feel this

The idea that the code is GOOD or even being used is not necessary to be saying that it exists, strewn everywhere

decentrality··on Sequoia backs Zed
For the record: I have never used the collaboration aspects of Zed

What I also have not used is vim emulation, though I have a vim background

As mentioned elsewhere, Zed is still very configuration-dependent to get the full power of it, and a lot of its functionality is never discovered for that reason

What pushed me to try it was Ollama integration which is not an afterthought, then I realized I loved it _way_ more than SublimeText, especially on performance, at first, then everything else once that won me over

I have ~10 running instances at any given moment, and >99% of the time never feel any lag, whatsoever

Another unexpected benefit is that terminals, code editor panels, and assistant chats, get to be sized and fit wherever you want, so it is also kind of a window manager... I often have more terminals open in Zed than in the Window Manager of the OS itself

decentrality··on Sequoia backs Zed
DeltaDB sounds of being a >git innovation for coding itself, and would fulfill Zed's promises in Nathan Sobo's debate/discussion with Steve Yegge recently.

Seems to solve a real problem which is growing rapidly, both in the old way and in the new way ... if it can overcome _slop_ in LLM chats, and the sheer enormity of code/data ahead. Trying to picture how coherence will survive.

With claims/hype/concern floating around that >90% of code will be LLM-generated within 3-6 months, with the insinuation/tone [1] that the same amount of code will be written by humans as now ( at least at first ) but LLM code will radically grow to dilute the space ( as is happening ) ... seems like DeltaDB being done right/well is going to be do-or-die on whether coherence remains possible!

[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/anthropic-ceo-ai-90-percent-...

decentrality··on We accidentally built the wrong internet
Does not address root issue(s) nor elephants in the room; i.e. the underlying centrality in the world context beforehand. The call to simplicity can as-easily if not more-rapidly veer dystopian without asserting any kind of world context

Agreed it's bad. No basis for changing it provided. No premise for 'better' there. No actual thought

decentrality··on The Death of the IDE?
Article is synopsis of "Steve Yegge v. Nathan Sobo" debate on YouTube: https://youtu.be/j2goZBL156Q
decentrality··on [dead]
Chasing down other threads on this, but eager to hear the HN perspective on other data and adjacent conversations.
decentrality··on Twilio is laying off 17% of workforce
Telnyx has SMS via API cornered at scale for about half the cost:

https://telnyx.com

decentrality··on Ask HN: Has anyone here turned around their life in their 40s?
Yes. Every story and background will vary, but to the question: absolutely, yes.

People seem to be advocating for various forms of therapy, and that can be fine, but I believe you have a genuine mid-life crisis going, and ought to ride that like a wave. You have a lot of potential it seems like, but lack really great guides and collaborators on shared goals.

I am aware of independent coaching that addresses everything you said, and there are plenty of people who can relate and advise in your circumstance. Someone needs to argue with you long enough for you to see that your outlook is not right or wrong, but ineffectual, inferior to your actual standard of living. That is what is peeking through here: a higher standard that will make or break you.

Your outlook is dark but the other side from where you are does make this crisis worth it. You seem at the edge of understanding there is something else, not just something more. From there, all your dilemmas are solvable smoothly in due course. It is similar to the entry of a higher math into a previously inscrutable problem domain. You just need that higher math, to wield it expertly and advance its edge, and for it to click into your way of seeing all situations and your life overall.

decentrality··on Keep the Internet free and open (2012)
Vint Cerf... drinking his own cool aid. Pure propaganda. Centrality can never do what he said. Using a centralized system in a decentralized and free way is bad systems strategy. Why not design for what we actually want rather than try to repurpose a system voted-up artificially by the US Department of Defense?

But we hacked ourselves. I still wonder what the world would be today if we had RINA from the start. Then even one word of that could be true:

"Our protocols were designed to make the networks of the Internet non-proprietary and interoperable. They avoided “lock-in,” and allowed for contributions from many sources. This openness is why the Internet creates so much value today. Because it is borderless and belongs to everyone, it has brought unprecedented freedoms to billions of people worldwide: the freedom to create and innovate, to organize and influence, to speak and be heard."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recursive_Internetwork_Archite...

decentrality··on Ask HN: Any pain points worth building an MVP for?
Love this answer except would recommend Baserow since you want to remove the technical hiccups and get immediate visuals. Combines the Google Sheets and MongoDB aspects.

Airtable is also fine but not self-host capable and getting pretty bloated and clingy with marketing, etc.

https://baserow.io

decentrality··on Ask HN: Any pain points worth building an MVP for?
People have recommended "scratch your own itch" but I find this is often like trying to see your own eyes.

Imagine a person, or find a person in your life. Create a "persona" around that person's experiences you observe.

So far, if that person is you, great. Now you can see yourself just like you were any other object, with properties and methods, etc.

Then map out the experiences of that persona, and create other personas and do the same for those. As you map out multiple personas, you will start to see shared experiences they have.

As you look through shared experiences you will start to find pain points, and soon you will have pain points that are the same across many personas.

Pain point mapping can be as high-level as "does not have viable future" or as low-level as "cannot remember password" so you want something in the middle like "cannot understand how to get traffic" or a mid-low "forgets to buy milk" or "cannot ..."

This is what people usually partner with a Growth Hacker for, or have a cofounder with ideas already and needs a technical solution to an idea already prepared.

decentrality··on Ask HN: How to learn to sell?
First impression: this is the reverse order, because you started selling the moment you chose to invest in this business idea.

You already know the value, otherwise you would not have made it. But more so, you ought to have audience already engaged before you write the first line of code, if it is a code-oriented value proposition for your brand.

Getting market share, building traction, cultivating momentum, these are all totally separate of having the product actually online. The key is the value proposition. And if you cannot get attention for that, without the product even there perhaps, you have no "yellow brick road" to travel, and sales do not make themselves. But if you get attention for something, all you have to do then is follow through on the promise of your brand, and deliver the value.

Cold sales work great when your value proposition is natural, and market is not cluttered. But I would refer you to "The Lean Brand" for the real mindset you need, no matter how you sell:

http://leanbrandbook.com/

decentrality··on California pledges to cut use of the Colorado river
Seeing the Lake Powell level decline ( and knowing that also means electricity, not just water shortfalls in the future for the Western Coast ) it does seem all this conservation and logistics thinking might have had a chance to be meaningfully effective if it started around 2010 at the latest, and been completed now, or within 5 years. Best get ahead of this rather than chase the target.

Anyone who traveled through "The Dust Bowl" or the Salton Sea as mentioned, or looked at the end of the Colorado River, which now does not make it to the Gulf of Mexico, knows that California in particular is on a knife's edge when it comes to water, and electricity.

Needs to be a paradigm shift here, and one that is sustainable from the start, rather than micro improvements and figuring out things that are decades past being common sense.

- https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-colorado-r...

- https://www.kpbs.org/news/2018/feb/19/few-weeks-colorado-riv...

decentrality··on Baserow.io – Self-hosted Airtable alternative
One great way to get this into the mainstream would likely be to clone and adapt `feathers.js` support for `Airtable`:

https://github.com/jonascript/feathers-airtable

decentrality··on Baserow.io – Self-hosted Airtable alternative
Had me at "self-hosted"

Following the repository now, and tried an online demo account. Looks promising but now quite ready.

Will be switching from Airtable when:

1. More field formats are supported ( like Currency, Collaborators, Multiselect )

2. Kanban views are supported

3. Automations are supported

decentrality··on My bank sent me 64 copies of the same debit card
"internal passport" yeah, that phrase is being appropriated, thanks!
decentrality··on Ask HN: How do you deel with loneliness when WFH alone?
I am fortunate to have my life partner and dog pack, but I have been thinking about churches in general as possibly being a legitimate construct in humanity. I don't mean to phrase that offensively, "maybe there is something here" is a compliment to my mind, and not a slight to you. It's a step toward.

This comment caused me to reach out to a UU congregation leader friend of mine always inviting me. Not necessarily to visit, but to understand... What does UU mean in practice? You describe an environment that should be great, but then I think... What else is going on there?

If you would like to follow up to your post with why UU vs. elsewhere FOR YOU, I would be interested to hear. I am ignostic and shamanic personally.

decentrality··on My experience as a Gazan girl getting into Silicon Valley companies
Not the time for "Remember the Asymptote" here actually. The world is being taken over by new generations free to break the framework. This type of post is about that.

It might also be about spread of corporations into every culture, but here I remember the "Other Conquest" in Central America where it didn't ultimately matter who came into the culture, because the culture held up under force. Both sides changed. I am as excited for Google as for the OP. These moments make the past unreal, and the future becomes about this kind of dream coming true and surpassed.

decentrality··on Fry's Electronics is closing all stores
Next morning, am seeing a notice on the landing.
decentrality··on Fry's Electronics is closing all stores
After midnight in timezone of the alleged store, and still online, with deals listed until end of month. Will obviously check back, but so far not seeing proof.
decentrality··on What I Worked On
I have seen former employees of mine join companies started in YC, and the ethos I've seen around YC in that way reminds me of how my great grandmother talked about working at General Electric. It's a decentralized Empire in vibe, with all the games and politics. It was really difficult to deprogram people once caught by the allure. People think in terms of their programs, like cookie cutters.

Structuring SAFEs, doing mentoring and creating batches, and creating a kind of orthodoxy based on unorthodoxy done better, definitely hit a stale point. I think it's even to the point the founders could return and do it again based on what they learned, with more "stay hungry, stay foolish" again, albeit with veteran wisdom now, and it would be revolutionary all over again, upending its own past.

decentrality··on Nevada bill would allow tech companies to create governments
Charter counties rather than charter cities. Seems like the same growing idea.

Good for Nevada. Between supporting the Series LLC and being essentially fully automated as a Secretary of State for ages, they are being very proactive about working on that very difficult land.

Skimming other comments here: to think paper people ( legal formations ) are not already doing or intending this sort of immersive experience, or assuming that is automatically draconian, is cute.

decentrality··on Monoliths as a Service
Not scaleable MVP concept at all. No way to reach critical MaaS.

Yeah, I too expected a software company.

decentrality··on On redesigning the system
Potentially against the spirit of the article, here is a link to a collaboration the author participated in, on Google Play Music:

https://play.google.com/music/m/Teyeiiypyniczers32g7wso6rne?...

In the neighborhood of Radiohead and Massive Attack. Electronic and evocative.

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